. >> ronald reagan knew the way he looked from every single direction so that when he made a gesture on camera he knew how that would come across on tv. for that carter was no match. >> okay. let's take a look at the chart we just brought up there from gallup. it shows how polls changed over the course of the debates in some of the most memorable elections. have any races in your estimation, michael, been won or lost solely in the debates? >> well, aside from the reagan-carter -- that was a special case because there was only one. it was ten days before. you showed the beginning, alex, of that terrible faux-pas saying the -- gerald ford probably would have won it without that faux-pas. >>> the numbers here for 1960. we had john f. kennedy who gained three percentage points after that performance that he gave while richard nixon continuously lost ground thereafter. the story goes that it was kennedy's tan, his youthful look that won him the first televised debate. do you think that's the full story? >> i think that's part of an lore. i think much more was this. before that first debat